


Greyhounds and Ravens

by ncruuk



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Janet King (TV)
Genre: F/F, consistent with language in Janet King episodes, stronger language than in Dr Who episodes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-11-12 14:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11164104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ncruuk/pseuds/ncruuk
Summary: It took a lot for Janet King to go over to the 'dark side' of defence briefs, being more usually associated with the Prosecution, be it at the DPP, leading a Royal Commission or, most recently, working at the National Crime Commission following her return from Fiji, but it was neither impossible nor unheard of.  It was however, alien.Very alien.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I must admit, I have no idea where this is or could go, or if I've even managed a half decent stab at the Janet King characters (I think, unless someone can remind me of something I've written and forgotten about, that this is my first attempt at an Australian fandom).
> 
> It's not necessary to have read any of my other Dr Who stuff (yet) although if you have read Code Word Classified: Gallifrey (the Dr Who/SG1 story) then you will perhaps find a few extra pieces of detail about the ravens explained.
> 
> If you have no idea about Janet King as a show, please have a quick google/scan of clips on youtube/check out the tag on Tumblr - it's got canon lesbians who share screen time and are occasionally allowed to be (very) affectionate with each other (as well as interesting, different to the normal cops and lawyers procedural shows, plots).

"This..." Kate Lethbridge-Stewart looked around at the landscape she'd found herself dropped off in by the Doctor and put her hands in her trouser pockets.  "...is not Horse Guards Parade."

 

"Krawk."

 

"Nor even the Horseferry Road, which would be an understandable confusion."  Setting off down the path, glad that he had at least dropped her off somewhere that didn't require wellington boots, Kate tried to work out where she could be.

 

"Krawk krawk."

 

"Honestly, the Doctor is insufferable at times."  Rounding the bend, she was confronted with what would, for most people arriving at the spot she had just come to, be considered at breathtaking view.

 

"Kra-awk."

 

"Thank you."  She turned, looking away from the postcard perfect sight of dawn breaking over Darling Harbour and looked at her companion, who had settled down on the adjacent railing following his inspection of their location.  "Whatever happens, please keep your temper Percy..."  She gave the Raven that she'd been 'borrowed' with a pointed look, not remotely phased by the unblinking stare that met her gaze.  "And please remember that here an 'alien species' does not mean you."

 

"Krawk kra-awk."

 

"Thank you.  That way was it?"  Kate inclined her head in the direction that she'd been instinctively walking in originally.  "Tip top."  And, hands still in her pockets, she strode on down the path, Percy hopping along the ground next to her, increasing his range of hop with a flap of his wings occasionally.

 

"Good morning!  Lovely day for it..."

 

"What the...where the hell did you come from?"

 

In retrospect, Percy thought, ruffling his feathers and wondering what exactly she was going to do to get all those primitive guns put away, perhaps she should have whistled to let them know she was coming or something.  After all, this was Greyhound One...she deserved a welcoming committee, didn't she?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The language gets a bit.... stronger than in Dr Who (but consistent with Janet King episodes....they do like a good swear it seems!)

"...see there?" Obediently, Janet King accepted the piece of paper Bonnie thrust in her direction, absently noting that at least the analyst had calmed down enough to make it physically possible for her to elect not to take the offered paper had she wished, rather than having it practically shoved under her nose.  She still, however, wasn’t giving Janet an opportunity to look at the page and form her own conclusions, but instead launched straight on.  “See how he never makes any calls? Nor emails anyone, it’s like he’s…”A tap on the glass wall of her office threw Bonnie off her stride, not because the tap was overly intrusive, but the analyst’s insatiable curiosity meant she was unable to not react to the noise behind her.  Surprised to see it was Detective Inspector Andy Campbell, from the State Police, Janet waved him in as she muttered a genuine 'sorry' at the young analyst.

 

"Andy..."  Intrigued, Janet put aside the paper and leaned back in her chair, considering the experienced police detective and trying to decide what had brought him to her office.  "Problem?"

 

"Do you know a Kate?"

 

"Kate?"  Bonnie was immediately shuffling through her papers, checking for any references they had an interest in that went by that name, although she couldn’t remember any.

 

"About..." He consulted the screen of his phone again, reading the message he'd been sent via about seven different members of the Force.  "Five nine, blonde..." He scrolled past some less than complimentary remarks that he was certain would only hasten him seeing the infamous Janet King stare directed at him. "...smartly dressed..."

 

"Not immediately..." Janet looked to Bonnie, wondering if the name meant anything to her, only to remember that this wasn't necessarily connected to the NCC investigation, and therefore it was solely down to her to know that if this description matched a witness or victim from one of her previous cases.  Clearly, from Bonnie’s expression, if this was something to do with the NCC, it was a completely new tangent.

 

"English accent..."  Andy was still scrolling, going through the message text and incident report again and again, seeing if there was anything else he could say to help her out that wouldn't also make him sound like a lunatic.  As such, he missed her blink and start in surprise - the only split second hint that she maybe did know something about this 'Kate'.

 

"Why?"  Years of sitting in court listening to defence counsel questioning witnesses had given her the ability to appear completely uninterested in something while actually hanging on every word while her brain raced at a mile a minute.

 

"She's at State Crime Command in Parramatta..."  Andy scrolled down the message again until he could see the arrest details.  "Picked up in the middle of a crime scene at one of the Harbour lookouts just after dawn...no ID, not willing to say how she came to the country nevermind be at the scene.  Just says her name is Kate and that she'd like to talk to you."  He thought that was it, only to see another text had just come in.  “Wait...shit.”

 

“What?”

 

“She was armed.  Pistol, military grade.  And, wait, this is weird…”

 

“It wasn’t already?”  Although Bonnie hadn’t yet mastered when not to speak in Janet’s company, she had learned to both recognise and not argue with the lawyer’s ‘be silent’ look. 

 

“The Feds are trying to get involved as well.”

 

“Immigration?”  Janet was still giving a fairly good impression of professional disinterest, although her brain was racing through half remembered laws and arcane treaty details, trying to piece together the arguments and counter-arguments that were relevant, assuming this was who she thought it was.

 

“Not yet.  AQIS.”

 

“Quarantine?  She arrive covered in mud or something?”  

 

Bonnie was impressed - she’d never heard Janet’s sarcasm voice reach such scathing levels - clearly she did know who this ‘Kate’ was after all.

 

“She’s travelling with some sort of pet apparently…”  Andy was struggling to work out anything very much more from the bits and pieces he was picking up thanks to a few mates being very good eavesdroppers and knowing from experience that everything generally went better if someone let him know when the name of Janet King was being dropped.

 

“Assistance dog?” Bonnie couldn’t help but offer a view, even though she really knew she shouldn’t.  “There are different rules for them…”

 

“More like a bloody big crow apparently.”

 

"Fuck."  Janet put down the piece of paper she was holding and glanced down the office, glad for once of the glass walls that meant she could see Bianca at the other end of the office.  Clearly there was something going in her favour today as, at that moment, her girlfriend looked up and caught her eye, enabling Janet to wave for her to come join them.  “It’s a raven.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“The bloody big crow...it’s a raven.”

 

"You know her?"  Andy winced, correctly anticipating the look she shot him.  “Of course you must, if you know about the bird…”  He looked down at his phone screen again, not sure if he was relieved or disappointed he hadn’t received any more texts in the last 30 seconds.

 

“What’s going on?” asked Bianca, having quietly slipped into the room without knocking, correctly assuming that she was expected to just join the discussion.  “Hi,” she added, nodding at her State Police counterpart.

 

When it became clear that Janet was not going to explain, being instead focussed on finding whatever she was looking for in her bag and on her tablet, Bonnie took it upon herself to provide an update in her own inimitable way.

 

“Some chick friend of hers is down at State Lock Up with the Feds and State all over her.”

 

“I see.”  

 

That, realised Andy immediately, was what he’d always liked about Bianca Grieve - she managed to take the situation in her stride, no matter how bizarre or random it seemed to be.  That and she somehow had a way of hanging in there through Janet’s angry moments and still being able to work with the lawyer afterwards, and that was a view he’d formed before the gossips had started to suggest there might be another reason why the Federal Police Detective was able to stay in Janet’s good books...

 

“Uh, there’s more…”  He saw another message come in and opened it, not needing to look to see if Janet was paying attention as he knew she’d be listening.  "The guys down there are wanting to call psych, think she's..."

 

"Have they?"

 

"Have they what?"

 

"Called Psych?" asked Janet, all pretense of not being extremely concerned by what she was hearing abandoned as she stood up and snatched up her bag, starting to chuck various items into it.

 

"I don't know...wait, this is for real?"

 

"This is for real Andy."  Satisfied she had everything she might need, Janet stepped out from her desk.  "Can you come too?” she asked Bianca, not surprised to see her despite never having looked up from her desk all the time her girlfriend had been in the office.  “Sorry..." she looked at Bonnie, trying to work out what to saw to the infuriating but extremely capable analyst.  "We're going to have to continue this another time."

 

"Where are you going?"

 

"State Crime Command."  Had she not been listening?

 

"Now?  But this is..."  Andy watched Bonnie do what he knew novelists described as 'going green' but it was more a sallow grey colour as she realised that  she'd just questioned Janet King's planned action in a way that, even someone as confident as Bonnie, couldn’t really get away with.

 

"A fuck up?  I'm aware of that, but this is..."  She paused while she closed a couple of folders and double checked she wasn’t leaving anything on her desk that might actually be useful, giving Andy an opportunity to finish her sentence for Bonnie and Bianca’s benefit, assuming Bianca knew the ‘fuck up’ that Janet was walking away from.

 

"...a bigger fuck up?"

 

"Yes."  Janet stood by the door, waiting for Bonnie to realise that she really needed to be on her way out of her office now.

 

"Who is she?" asked Andy, suddenly very glad he'd accidentally listened to the gossip on his way to his desk this morning and decide, on hearing Janet's name repeatedly being mentioned, to dig a little deeper.  In his experience, if Janet was declaring something was fucked up she was usually right.  Since so far at least he wasn't remotely responsible for this particular 'fuck up', he was curious to know what was going on, if only because this woman had already amassed a pretty amazing list of alleged offences...a list Bianca was quickly catching up on since he’d passed her his phone so she could scan the details he knew so far.

 

"A keen gardener."  Janet herded the rather slow moving Bonnie out of their way and set off walking towards the exit, correctly presuming that Andy and Bianca would be coming with her.

 

"Going somewhere interesting?" asked Tony, falling into step with them as they passed across the entrance to the ‘star chamber’, not really liking the idea that his lead counsellor and chief investigator were electing to leave the office just now.  "Only I'd foolishly thought that expert testimony was of interest to the lead counsel and chief investigator..."

 

"State Crime Command."  Janet allowed herself a small grin when her friend and boss looked at her in surprise.  "And no, I've not joined the Dark Side."

 

"Since when do we make house calls to the accused?"

 

"When they're excellent bridge players."

 

"It's too early for shit like that Janet..." warned Tony, thinking she was joking with him while holding the door open for her that separated the inner sanctum of the NCC from the rest of the building.

 

"I'm not joking."  She stepped onto the escalator, hearing him muttering as he followed her, presumably having beaten Andy and Bianca onto the escalator.  She stepped off at the bottom and carried on walking slowly, knowing he’d catch her up after a stride or two.  "She's somewhere in State Crime Command, although I'd be impressed if they've got her as far as lock up."

 

"Fuck."

 

"That's what I said."

 

"You're going to fix this?"

 

"I'm going to fix this."

 

“You need Bianca?”

 

“She’s got no ID, a firearm and a raven with her.”

 

"I’m not going to tell Owen."  Tony grinned, suddenly seeing the bright side of this mess - at least he wasn’t the one to have to try to make sure the AG didn’t hear about this.

 

"Probably best."  And, with a final shared look of understanding, Janet turned, ready to set off in the direction of where Andy would be parked.  "Oh, and Tony?"

 

"Yes Janet?"

 

"She drinks Irish.  Good stuff."

 

"I accept your invitation..."

 

"Good."  Janet had only taken two strides before something else struck her.  "Tony?"

 

"Yes Janet?"

 

"I think Bonnie was about to not tell me she’d found the connection between Graeme and Tubsman.”

 

"Fuck."  Tony ran his hand through his hair and loosened his top button, pulling his tie knot askew in the process.  “Wait, not tell you?”

 

“She’d only just started…”  And with that, as she stepped out into the sunshine, Janet pulled on her sunglasses and strode off in the direction of where Andy had left his car

 

“Fuck!”


	3. Chapter 3

“You want me to drive?” asked Bianca, catching the keys Andy tossed to her after it became clear that his phone call was nothing to do with their current little trip to State Crime Command but equally not going to go away quickly.  To both BIanca and Janet’s surprise however, he promptly got into the back seat of the unmarked police car, clearly expecting the call to take most of their ride, not that Bianca minded as it gave her the opportunity to catch up on what was happening.

 

“So…”  Seat and mirrors adjusted, Bianca pulled out into the mid morning traffic, deciding to avoid using the lights and sirens for as long as she could, wanting to be able to pay some attention to the explanation she really hoped Janet was about to provide.

 

“So?”  Janet looked at her girlfriend, not immediately understanding what she was supposed to start talking about, only to receive the side on view of what she’d come to mentally refer to as Bianca’s ‘you’re really that dumb?’ look that’s she’d been getting a lot recently, but then she knew nothing about sport except that she always sought to avoid watching it.  “Oh, right…”  Janet caught her lip between her teeth and rested her elbow on the inside of the car door, absently following the progress of a small child with a balloon down the street while she ordered her thoughts and worked out where to begin.

 

“Look, mate…”  Andy’s conversation was clearly not going well given how frustrated he was sounding, reminding both women that they weren’t alone in the car, although he was not paying them the slightest bit of attention, instead focussed on trying to get whoever he was talking to to agree with something.  Tuning him out again, Janet shifted in her seat slightly so she was able to see Bianca as she began to try and explain why she was prepared to drop everything and head out to State Crime Command.

 

“Do you remember how I wasn’t in Fiji when I was in Fiji?”  That sentence had no right to make sense but Bianca knew what Janet was talking about.

 

“Yes.  And that’s a confusing sentence but still not the most confusing thing you’ve ever said to me,” teased Bianca as she changed lanes and just caught the green light in the process.  It had been a bit of a surprise, discovering that in a relationship between a cop and a lawyer, it was the lawyer that suddenly had a super-secret undercover posting that nobody was supposed to know about, rather than the cop.  “UN something or other?”

 

“Not exactly… Unified Intelligence Task Force.  Its headquarters are in Geneva, but I spent most of my time in London.  It’s usually called UNIT.”

 

“UNIT?”  Bianca pulled up at the red stop light and took the opportunity to look across at Janet, noting as she did so that Andy was staring out of the window and, judging by the fix of his jaw, whatever he was hearing was really not making his day.  “Is that some kind of terrorism thing then?”  There were so many joint task forces starting up involving various countries that it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of them all, so Bianca wasn’t too concerned that she’d not heard about this one before, even with Janet’s involvement.  Equally, she might well have heard of it before and not realised - it wasn’t uncommon for some task forces to change their name part way through and people who’d spent years working on them have no idea what they were now called.  She was, however, a little hurt that Tony had known enough to have a better idea what was going on than Bianca had.

 

“Only accidentally...and Tony knows because I asked him to be brought in when I needed a second opinion.”  The light turned from red to green and they set off again, but not before Bianca had time to feel a bubble of  _ something  _ at the realisation that Janet knew her well enough to pick up on her unvoiced hurts while also feeling a bit of guilt that she had doubted Janet in the first place.  “And I think he only said yes when Kate let slip she could produce tickets to Lords for something or other.”

 

“Wait, this is the woman who got the Ashes tickets for Tony?”  Bianca might have never heard of UNIT or known what had Janet occupied for some months in London and Geneva when ‘officially’ she was in Fiji, but she had heard, at length, about the test match that Tony had got to watch every ball of the match at Lord’s, and it had been a brilliant Australia performance.

 

“You know about that?”  Janet had to smile at her girlfriend’s expression - she kept forgetting that she was in love with a sports fan.  “Of course you would, he’s Tony…”  Janet was about to say something more about her long-time boss and friend’s fixation on a schoolyard game when she realised that they were making surprisingly good time getting to Parramatta and she should probably concentrate on the more important stuff.  “But yes, it was Kate...Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the UNIT Chief Scientific Officer and UNIT UK head that got him the tickets.”

 

“And she’s the woman who’s asking for you?”  

 

“Has to be.”

 

“Because she’s the only blonde with an English accent called Kate that you know?”  Bianca was doing her best not to sound like  _ that sort  _ of girlfriend, who worries about every last female her girlfriend knew that she didn’t, but it was hard not to be just a little bit curious about someone who clearly had a lot of influence (based on her ability to get cricket tickets), a pretty impressive sounding job and the ability to get a lawyer from the other side of the world to go work with her for a few months on a super-secret something.

 

“Who is actually able to appear in the middle of a crime scene in Australia with a gun and a...you read Andy’s messages, did the bird have a name?”

 

“Is that relevant?”

 

“Extremely.”  Janet tried to remember what she could about the three different groups of ravens Kate had.

 

“No, there was no mention of a name, but I didn’t see all of it.”  She’d managed a brief scan of what Andy had been initially sent, getting as far as seeing that whoever this ‘Kate’ was, she’d managed to collect a long list of possible charges at both State and Federal levels.  “AQIS is still going to be involved whatever it’s called.”

 

“Only if its name is a synonym for black.  Otherwise it’s an immigration issue and even then...”  Janet lapsed into silence as she turned over the various possible scenarios and resultant legal situations.  “...given she’s armed it’s probably already got a right of entry and diplomatic immunity.”

 

“Okay…” There was nothing else really that Bianca could think to say to that - it was the same sort of feeling she got when Janet would suddenly rattle off a part of the NCC Act as a justification for them getting a weekend in Melbourne:  there was no reason to question the authenticity of Janet’s answer but at the same time, there was that ‘too good to be true’ quality that someone knowing the exact detail for an otherwise randomly obscure situation just like that usually meant instinctively triggered her cop’s ‘bullshit’ reaction.  But then again, this was Janet, and when Janet King was speaking it was impossible not to accept that she did indeed know every last relevant detail no matter how small or trivial.  

 

“In which case, be very careful what you say in its earshot.”  Janet risked a quick glance back at Andy, relieved that he was still occupied with his phone call as she could only imagine what this must sound like.  “As they can understand every word.”

 

“Right...thanks.”  Bianca checked the mirrors then changed lanes so they could take the exit ramp they needed.  “Anything else I should know?”

 

“At this point? Almost certainly, but without knowing why she’s here there’s not much point speculating.”  Janet looked out of the window again, suddenly remembering being in a meeting with Kate when someone had come in with news of an incident of some sort and Kate had been immediately concerned about what the weather was doing.  At first, she’d dismissed it as part of the stereotypical English obsession with rain, but had soon discovered that rapidly altering cloud conditions could often be an advance warning of impending alien disaster of one sort or another.  With that incident in mind, she was relieved to see the sky was reassuringly blue and cloudless, something that would no doubt irritate her children when they were made to put on sunscreen before Tiny Track later.  “Oh, except that her partner’s called Osgood and she’s got two children in their twenties, Gordy and Max…”

 

“Osgood?  Is that his first name?”

 

“She.”  Janet had to grin when she saw the frown of concentration on her girlfriend’s face give way to an amused grin at being caught out making the same assumption they’d had to correct on more than one occasion.  “And no, it’s her surname, but she’s just called Osgood.” 

 

“Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Osgood, but Osgood’s not with her?  It’s just this Kate?”

 

“And her raven.”  The more Janet thought about it, the more she was certain that the raven who had arrived with Kate wouldn’t have a name that was a synonym for black.

 

“And her raven.”  Bianca concentrated on navigating the junction for a second.  “Who potentially has diplomatic immunity.”

 

“Who has diplomatic immunity?” asked Andy, his phone call finally done.  “This Kate woman?”

 

“Certainly.”  Since she was looking out of the window again, noticing they’d virtually arrived at State Crime Command, Janet missed the looks both Andy and Bianca shot her, each cop having the same thought: that it would have been nice if she’d mentioned that little detail sooner.  “But I was talking about the raven.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Kraw-ak…”  Percy opened his wings, ruffled his feathers and tapped the tabletop with his beak, before folding his wings away and regaining his balance on his perch, which was actually  the top of the chair Kate was electing not to sit on.

 

“May I remind you it was your choice?” Kate was leaning against the wall, her hands in the pockets of her suit trousers.  Her shirt sleeves were rolled up to just below her elbows and her cufflinks were in the pocket of her suit jacket….which was on the back of her chair in her office at the Tower, along with her glasses, phone and any chance of proving her own identity.  Further frustration came from the fact that she’d also not been wearing her watch, which was hopefully still in Osgood’s pocket.

 

“Kra-KRAWK!” Based on the volume alone, never mind tone, it was clear that Percy took exception to this observation.

 

“Do not take that tone with me young man….”  Kate leveled a steady gaze on the bird who, much to the disbelief of the already completely stunned Police Constable who’d been tasked with standing guard in the interview room they were in, actually seemed to look chastened and apologetic.  “...I was talking about your decision to stay with me despite my explaining that we would end up in a small room indoors.  You could have…”  Suddenly mindful that they weren’t exactly alone at the moment, and it would take a little bit of time before she could organise a memory wipe for the young officer assigned to guard her, Kate stopped talking and looked meaningfully at Percy, hoping he’d understood.

 

“Krawk-kra-krawk-krawk.”  He snapped his beak open and closed a couple of times, the clack echoing loudly in the small room.  “Kra-kra-kraw-ak.”

 

“Apology accepted.”  Kate rubbed the back of her neck, trying not to think about what time or day of the week it might be as that would only remind her how hungry she was probably supposed to be and how much inconvenience her absence was no doubt causing at the Tower.  “And I apologise for implying that you would abandon your duty or post.  That was insensitive of me.”  She stretched her neck and rolled her shoulders as she put her hand back in her pocket and resumed her casual pose leaning against the wall.  “We can ask Janet if we can move to a room with a window, if not somewhere outside.  It looked a lovely day when we arrived.”

 

“Krawk arak kraw-ak krawk kraw-krawk?”  Percy emphasised that he meant her to interpret that as a question by tipping his head on one side and, once he knew he had her attention, winking at her.

 

“Oh shush you!”  Embarrassed at his suggestion, not because she was overly bothered about her private life being a topic of conversation for the gossip loving not-corvid ravens (at least they kept their opinions mostly to themselves rather than spreading it around the entire UNIT grapevine), but because it really was a very good suggestion that she really should have thought of for herself, Kate shot a pointed look at her cheeky travelling companion and gave as good as she got.  “How would you feel if I gave you grooming tips for Toby?”

 

There was only one response any self respecting ‘Raven’ could give to that, so he started to turn around on the top of the chair, preparing to ‘decorate’ the table...

 

“Continue with that young man, and I’ll make sure you’re assigned to all the school trips for the next six months….”

 

“Krawk.”  He hadn’t been going to decorate the table, not really and he knew she knew it, but it was always a good joke that they played on the Ravenmaster and Malcolm when they were bored.  But he nevertheless took her threat seriously - he didn’t mind observing his share of the school trips, finding the miniature humans entertaining and a good reminder of why the Doctor cared about this planet, but they were so noisy!  A Raven could only cope with so much before his feathers started to hurt.

 

“Tip top.”  And, with her claustrophobic Raven suitably distracted from his creeping sense of panic at being stuck in a room with no windows or natural airflow, Kate settled back to once more lean against the wall and look at nothing in particular while she waited for Janet and tried to work out if there was a reason he’d dropped her off in Sydney…


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember, those of you who are not overly familiar with the Janet King fandom, to read this chapter in an Australian accent...it will make much more sense if you do!
> 
> [With thanks to an Aussie friend on tumblr for the sense check of a bit of Aussie banter I was struggling with - you know who you are :-) ]

“Do we need to have a plan?” Andy stopped, a few steps from the main entrance into State Crime Command and looked at Bianca.  “I mean, besides the obvious one?”

 

“The obvious one?”  Janet looked at Bianca to see if she knew what he was talking about.

 

“Nah, I think it’s good enough.”  Looking from Andy to her girlfriend, Bianca grinned.  “What did you always complain happened when a suspect lawyered up?”

 

“Remind me…”  Janet had said many, many things in her time about defence counsel and suspects who reached for them the second they were in custody, including many she’d said for Bianca’s ears only.

 

“That us cops just let them waltz right in and have a private chat without a second thought?”

 

“Ah, okay…”  Janet caught her lip in her teeth and switched her bag from her right hand to her left.  “So?”

 

“So you walk in being, well, you and…” Bianca paused, watching with growing amusement as she saw her girlfriend realise what she and Andy were presuming.

 

“That’s the obvious plan?”  Janet wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or complimented by their suggestion that by just announcing herself as being here to see Kate she’d be granted access to her.  “Then what are you two going to do?”

 

Bianca and Andy shared a quick look, before they answered in unison.

 

“Paperwork.”  

 

It was strange really, but as the two police officers became more senior, they ended up with less and less ‘action’ in their day-to-day roles while Janet somehow managed to leave the more traditional legal ‘bookwork’ behind her and instead spend more time outside of her office than in it.  Then again, realised Bianca and Andy with a shared look of understanding, increasingly it was Janet not being in her office that generated most of their paperwork….

 

“Huh.”  Certain she was missing something, but knowing there was no point trying to get it out of the two Detective Inspectors who, despite the traditional State vs Fed tensions, managed to work together very well.  Instead Janet decided to let it drop for a while - if nothing else, she’d enjoy trying to tease Bianca into fessing when they were on their own…

 

“Anything else we should know?” asked Bianca, trying not to grin too unprofessionally when she read in Janet’s face the lawyer’s plan for revisiting this topic:  it would be hard to pull Federal Rank inside if she was blushing like a schoolgirl around her first crush.

 

“Not really…”  Janet couldn’t think of anything specific that was worth mentioning to them and was about to set off inside when she remembered that there was one thing they probably were better being warned about in advance.  “...unless you didn’t already know that aliens exist and time travel is possible.”  And, slipping her sunglasses off her head and tucking them into her bag, she strolled off to enter Crime Command, leaving two suddenly slack-jawed inspectors to pull themselves together.

 

“Did she just say…” asked Andy, not sure what he’d missed on the drive over from the NCC but fairly confident from Bianca’s reaction that he hadn’t missed the ‘aliens are real’ chat.

 

“Aliens and time travel?”  Bianca looked at her girlfriend, momentarily distracted by admiring how she just walked up to Crime Command like she owned the place, but then again, she was a sucker for a good strutter… “Yeah.   Look, we should probably…” Giving herself a swift mental slap and order to pay attention as well as a reminder that she was at work, Bianca made to catch Janet up.  

 

“Right...wait, she’s serious?”  Had he really just heard Janet King tell him aliens and time travel were real and presumably therefore relevant to this Kate person?  “Of course she’s serious, she’s Janet King…”

 

“Mate…”  Stopping again, Bianca turned to look at the State cop, more amused than offended but wanting to just make absolutely sure.  “Are you suggesting my girlfriend doesn’t have a sense of humour?”

 

“Are you suggesting that she does?”  He threw a playful elbow in her direction, relieved that they were still able to share a bit of banter despite everything that had happened in the last few years.

 

“Would I fuck around about something like that?”  It was only after she’d said it aloud that Bianca realised that there was another, more literal way her comment could be interpreted.

 

“Come on…” Winking at her to confirm that yes, he’d seen there was an opportunity to make a potentially too crude even for cops in a crisis joke but he definitely wasn’t going to take it, he set off to catch Janet up again.  “Anyways, I reckon we’re both too happy to fuck around…how are the twins?”

 

“They’re good… and yours?”  She couldn’t for the life of her remember his daughter’s name, although unlike Janet she did at least remember Andy and Lina had had a daughter.  “How’s she doing?”

 

“Growing like a weed…”  


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, Who-vians, please remember your Australian reading voices ;-)

“Can I help you?”  It was clear from the young constable’s tone, that helpful was a long way down his list of things he felt like doing.

 

“You have a…” For a split second there was a pause as Janet sifted through all the possible ways she could try and classify Kate within the legal system before she picked the one that was the least compromising.  “...member of the public assisting you who has requested my presence.”

 

“And who might that be then?”  Hearing the lazy drawl of the constable, Bianca shot Andy a worried look, relieved to see he shared her concern and was already reaching for his ID.  Janet King in a good mood for the defence was one thing, but making her annoyed?  That was not something anyone should be seeking.

 

“Just tell someone more senior that Janet King is here,” suggested Janet through gritted teeth, reminding herself that everything would be that much harder is she lost her temper with this kid before she secured access to Kate.

 

“And why should I do that lady?”

 

“Because Constable…”  Andy had had enough and stepped up to the counter, his State Police ID thrust out in front of him.  “Commissioner King…”  Judging by how this kid of a Constable started to look like he’d just crapped himself, it was clear that the whole ‘King Commission’ was still a pretty big thing even now.  That Janet technically wasn’t a Commissioner anymore was a minor detail.  “...asked you more nicely than you deserved and I’m…”  Andy shoved his ID back into the Constable’s eyeline, making damn sure he saw it said he was Detective Inspector Campbell, “...ordering you.  Get your Senior…” He didn’t bother to specify whether he meant Senior Connie or Sergeant.

 

“Y….y..yes Sir.”  

 

“That was mean…” observed Janet mildly, once she was confident they weren’t being overhead and Bianca had stopped hiccuping from trying not to laugh.

 

“We’ve only just started…” was Andy’s only comment as he tipped his head in the direction of the returning Constable, this time being followed by two other people which, if he were a betting man, he’d give odds on one being a Fed.  Clearly, from how Bianca was also reaching for her ID, she was of the same mindset.

 

“Great, a pissing contest.”

 

“Isn’t that why you let us come?” teased Bianca as she stepped forwards, recognising one of the two uniformed officers as a Fed she not only knew reasonably well but could pull rank on and was owed a favour or two.  “Joe?  Good to see you...how’s Tasha?”  As she separated her AFP colleague from what had all the makings of a rather dull turf war amongst the State Police, Bianca risked a quick glance at Andy to make sure he understood: this was a State Police building not an AFP one, so it was most definitely his pissing contest now.

 

“You’re Janet King?”  In contrast to his Constable, the Duty Senior Sergeant was rather more alert and significantly less dismissive of the tall blonde woman.

 

“Yes I am, and you are?”  See the duty Senior Sergeant began to talk sensibly to Janet, Andy felt his jaw muscles relax again...perhaps it wouldn’t be a pissing contest after all….


	7. Chapter 7

“Excuse me?”  Kate squinted slightly, trying to work out from his uniform whether the kid (she felt entitled to think of him as ‘kid’ as he looked younger than Gordy did with ‘bed head’,meaning he looked about twelve to Kate) would respond better to ‘Officer’ or ‘Constable’.  She absolutely refused to entertain the notion of him being old enough to have attained a higher rank.  “I’m sorry, I can’t read your name badge, my glasses…” She was about to say her glasses were ‘at the Tower’ but caught herself in time.  “...are with my jacket.”  A diplomatic compromise - UNIT would expect nothing less from Greyhound One.  Percy ruffled and smoothed his feathers in approval.

 

“Constable Repson Ma’am.”  So she was a bit weird, even for a Pom the way she talked to that pet crow of hers, but Alfie Repson didn’t see any reason why he should be rude to her.

 

“Constable Repson, I don’t suppose you know the name of the park I was...visiting this morning do you?”  Kate’s diplomatic auto-pilot was in full force, resulting in her using a rather warmer, softer voice that was more persuasive than commanding.

 

“You were in the Captain Henry Waterhouse Reserve Ma’am.”  He’d been told she was some sort of amnesiac, which explained why she’d been found with no idea where she was specifically.  “It’s in Kirribilli…”  Seeing that this was still not appearing to register with her, he thought about what else was in the area that she might recognise.  “...near the Governor General’s place?” There was no reason why she’d be connected with the Governor General’s place, but he didn’t think she’d gone down there for the fishing and, well, there was the accent.

 

“Ah, thank you.”  That was a landmark she did recognise.

 

“Krawk?”  Percy hopped up from the table onto the back of the chair and, after regaining his balance in his excitement to find out the significance of what she’d learned, looked at her expectantly.

 

“Admiralty House.”  Kate watched Constable Repson out of the corner of her eye, pleased when she saw his instinctive nod of confirmation that she’d got the name of the Governor General’s Official Residence correct.

 

Percy unfolded his wings and gave a little flap with his right wing.

 

“Perhaps.”  Kate caught her lower lip between her teeth and looked in his direction but was actually just looking into space.  He was absolutely correct, Admiralty House Sydney was on one of the lists of places where there would have been a credentials protocol, but that particular list had ceased to be in effect long before her father’s day and certainly hadn’t been operational since the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia.  Still, having long memories was an important part of being one of the Ravens, and he’d done well to remember it.  “But then again…”  She looked meaningfully at Percy and waited for him to follow her logic.

 

“Ka?”  Percy was happy to agree with her that it was extremely unlikely that they’d actually been deliberately delivered to a long since abandoned Reference Archive and Alien Transit Station, but he was struggling to work out what the more likely possibility was that she’d thought of.

 

“She could have just missed.”

 

“Krawk.”  Now he knew what she was thinking, Percy was inclined to agree with her.  The Tardis did occasionally have glitches in her navigation systems, not helped by the Doctor’s rather heavy-handed grip on the Floomph Regulator, and that was without having Percy to contend with.  “Krawk-Krawk-awk!”

 

“Best not mention that to Osgood…” said Kate swiftly, understanding his point but really wishing he’d not mentioned it - she’d rather hoped that no one else worked out that if the Ravens were the ones keeping the Tower ‘Tardis proof’ it was probably unwise of her to have travelled with Percy.  “After all,  we’re not that far from Trafalgar Square…”  Not if all of Time and Space were also possible….which just left the small matter of time.  Just how long had she been off Earth?


	8. Chapter 8

“You going to be alright?”  Andy looked from the computer monitor that was showing them the CCTV feed of the room Kate was currently in to Janet.

 

“Hmm?”  Janet looked up from the screen and smiled at him.  “Yes, fine thanks.  Can you…?”  She gestured to the stiff looking figure that was Constable Repson, indicating that she wanted him out of the room when she met with her ‘client’, although it probably didn’t matter as he had almost certainly already met the criteria whereby UNIT were legitimately entitled to complete a 12 hour memory-wipe on him.

 

“Uh, since she’s asked for you by name, there’s going to be an expectation that you can formally identify her first…”

 

“I know…” Janet met Andy’s narrowing stare with an equally steady and cool gaze of her own.

 

“...but you want me to look the other way so you can…”  Andy looked back at the monitor, trying to work out what exactly might happen if he let Janet King of all people bend the rules for this ‘Kate’.  “...avoid me landing in an even bigger fuck up than whatever it was you were getting into at the NCC this morning.”

 

“Something like that...”  Janet’s smile softened and became the one that he’d originally thought was a bit smug but had come to realise it was actually more a case of ‘trust me, I’m trying to keep both of us but mostly you out of the shit’.  It had taken him a while to understand that when Janet King asked him to do something that had the potential to land in dodgy territory, she genuinely meant what she said when she said. “...and if anyone complains you can say I told you to do it.”

 

“You just did.”  He grinned at her, experienced enough now to understand how she played this particular game.

 

“Precisely.”  Janet’s attention shifted from Andy to someone knocking on the door and then slipping in.  “Hi….”  Andy was rather proud of himself for guessing, based on how Janet’s expression and voice changed, that the new arrival was Bianca.

 

“How’s it going?” asked Bianca, looking primarily to Andy having been occupied for the last half hour or so trying to untangle what the Federal situation might or might not be.

 

“Yeah, alright…”  Andy shot a glance at Janet, his accompanying shrug trying to tell Bianca that so far, he’d got Janet to here but it was still all down to her at the moment.  “Officially we’re letting the Feds go first with the immigration and quarantine charges....”  He picked up the file he’d put down on the table when he’d started talking to Janet and glanced at it again, mostly so Bianca couldn’t see his poor attempt to not grin.

 

“Unofficially you’re waiting for me to do most of the paperwork…” teased Bianca, knowing that she’d already thought about trying to do exactly that, only from her perspective that meant getting the State Police to resolve the unknown identity and unregistered concealed gun charges first.  Not that either of the police detectives actually expected the charges to ever be formally presented as clearly that had to be what Janet was here to avoid.  “...and I’m waiting for you to establish identity because without that…” Bianca and Andy shared a grin, each knowing what the other was counting on: without being able to officially establish Kate’s identity, neither police force could get very far with the possible charges.  For starters, if the AFP didn’t know who she was, how could they prove beyond reasonable doubt that she hadn’t arrived legitimately?

 

“She doesn’t exist.”

 

“Yeah…”  Andy looked at Janet, pleased that she’d followed their paperwork avoiding strategy, only to see from her expression that she was making a statement, not seeking clarification.  “Wait, what do you mean she doesn’t exist?”

 

“Section 4, sub-section 2 of the Universal Treaty On Earth Protocol..”  Janet paused and focussed on somewhere between the end of her nose and Bianca’s, looking at nothing but ‘seeing’ the full text in her mind.  “...any Taskforce operative with appropriate credentials or responsibility shall be afforded the right of full deniability and covert classification at their request by any member nation.”  She blinked to help her refocus and saw that both Andy and Bianca were looking at her with a mixture of disbelief and total confusion.  “The Protocol came into effect in 1893 and Britain is one of the originators.” It was actually why it was known, in the UNIT inner circle at least, as the ‘Tower Treaty’, since it was negotiated and signed at the Tower of London between 1891 and 1893.   “On independence from Britain, the Commonwealth of Australia signed it in our own right.”

 

“And she’s…”  Andy gestured at the CCTV screen where they could see Kate was now sat on the edge of the table and the bird appeared to be asleep.

 

“...a Taskforce operative with…” finished Bianca, trying to work out how someone with no identification could suddenly identify themselves for the purposes of this Protocol thing.

 

“Appropriate credentials or responsibility?”  Janet knew this was sounding crazier by the second, but it was old but robust law.  And she should know, since she’d been the one to complete the review of all the various protocols and treaties to make sure they were appropriately robust when they needed to be and open to interpretation where it might be useful.  It had been a different sort of legal challenge for her, even before she got to grips with the aliens, but one she’d ultimately enjoyed, even if she never could work out whether it would be enforceable in North Korea.  “Yes.  Schedule 2 sets out the various criteria, but she meets the standard even if there isn’t a specific purpose to her visit.”  And Janet was fairly certain this was going to be an accidental visit rather than a crisis, although Kate Lethbridge Stewart was about the hardest person she’d ever had to try to read, being almost irritatingly more at ease as the probability of impending annihilation increased.

 

“You got any idea how we do this?” Andy looked at Bianca, deciding it was easier to stop trying to understand how Janet was making sense and just accept that she was.

 

“Flag as diplomatic immunity?”  Bianca thought for a second, frowning as she considered all the potential options.  “CI or Protective Custody maybe?”  The first category would enable them to stop anyone being too curious about why the paperwork stopped, and presumably the High Commission would back up the story if anyone prodded, while the latter would lock the files so only a very select few could access them and they’d not show up in system cross checks.  “Even NCC?”  Everyone knew that it was pointless asking why a file was locked with the NCC, and it would tie in with Janet being requested.

 

“I’m sure you’ll think of something…” And, with a final glance at the CCTV monitor and smiles to them both, Janet picked up her bag and headed for the door, leaving Andy and Bianca to finish sorting out their paperwork issues.


	9. Chapter 9

“Constable….”  Janet stepped to the side of the open doorway and, her bag clasped in front of her, watched with Kate as the almost painfully young man was shepherded out of the room by Andy.  Even when the door was closed, and she and Kate were ostensibly on their own with their avian observer, Janet stayed just inside the door.

 

“You came.”  Standing by the table, her hands in her pockets, Kate looked like she was the one expecting an explanation rather than the person who had appeared unexpectedly.

 

“You requested I came.”

 

“So you know who I am?”  This was why Kate hated space travel with the Doctor - she didn’t mind space, it was nice to visit if only to confirm she was a fan of her own planet, but she really couldn’t cope with time travel.  She’d have been fine with the occasional trip into space with the Doctor if they could be relied upon to not throw in a bit of ‘timey-wimey’, but there was no guarantee that a trip in the Tardis would see her crossing only space.  Instead, there was always this awkward moment when you returned where you didn’t quite know if you were back before you were missed or not.  It was even worse in cases like this,  when you returned somewhere you hadn’t previously been and didn’t have the appropriate luggage with you, or an opportunity to check with the Tardis where she’d parked before you disembarked.

 

“Yes, you’ve not changed that much in the last 18 months or so.”  Janet doubled checked her mental arithmetic - she was right, it was about 18 months since she’d last seen Kate.

 

“It’s lovely to see you Janet…”  It was as if a switch and been flicked as suddenly, where there was frost between the two blondes there was now warmth, and where there had been distance there was now genuine friendship as Janet put her bag on the table and returned Kate’s hug of greeting.  From Kate’s perspective, it was also about 18 months since she’d last seen Janet, which suggested she’d been returned to Earth at roughly the same time she’d left.

 

“...you too…”  Janet pulled back from the hug to look at her friend and one time temporary boss, technically speaking.  “...although you could have called first?  Or brought a change of clothes?”

 

“Or my glasses, phone, watch…”  Kate trailed off as the more mundane impracticalities of her current situation hit her.

 

“KRAWK!”

 

“Stand down!”  Stepping back from Janet, Kate turned and looked at Percy who, she belatedly realised, was literally hopping mad, with his hops increasing in height courtesy of an occasional flap of his wings.  “And lower your voice, we’re in the same post code.”

 

“Kra-wak.”  Stopping his hopping, Percy also lowered his voice but kept his wings open and one eye fixed firmly on Janet.

 

“LANGUAGE!”  Singularly unimpressed with his attitude, Kate folded her arms and glared at him, her foot beginning to tap.  “That is completely uncalled for.”  She remained glaring at Percy until finally his head dipped and he tapped the table twice with his beak.

 

“Hmm.  It’s not up to me.”

 

“Kra?”  Drawing his wings in and puffing up his feathers, Percy’s head sunk back into the downy volume, making him look almost cute.

 

“You will have to ask her.  Now…” Kate looked away from her troublesome Raven and looked at Janet, relieved to see the lawyer was electing to favour amused rather than irritated.  “...perhaps I could be given a chance to introduce her to you?” asked Kate, looking back to Percy who had restored his feathers to their more glossy, tidy good order and was now doing his best to look like a well behaved Raven who hadn’t just seriously annoyed Greyhound One.

 

“Krawk krawk kra-wk kra?”  By the time he’d finished, Percy was standing up extra tall and looking between Janet and Kate, his head angled to to side as he waited for Kate’s answer.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“What’s happening?” asked Andy, rejoining Bianca by the CCTV monitor and trying not to panic at the loud squawks he’d heard as he came past the door to the room Janet was in.

 

“Not sure…”  Bianca shifted up along the table she was sitting on so he had space to sit if he wanted to, her eyes remaining fixed on the screen that showed the two women and the big black bird.  “Bloody big bird.”

 

“Noisy too.”  Andy looked from the bird to the two women.  “What are they doing?”

 

“Uh…”  Leaning forwards so she could get a closer look, Bianca worked out what they were doing fairly quickly but had no idea why.  “...they’re taking their earrings out…”

 

* * *

 

 

“You don’t have to indulge him Janet…” said Kate as she fiddled with the tiny stud back on her right earring, not wanting it to fly across the room, although Percy was extremely good at retrieving small shiny things.

 

“Are you kidding?”  Janet removed her left earring and put it on the table next to the other one that she’d already removed.  “Wait, is there anything else I need to know first?”

 

“About talking to Percy?”

 

“About why you’re here with no warning…”  Only Kate Stewart, thought Janet, could need reminding about that, she was that bloody unflappable.

 

“Oh, that.”  Kate frowned, mostly because she was having to concentrate quite hard on getting her left stud earring out - it really had been much more straightforward when Osgood was putting them on for her.  “Sat nav error.”  Triumphantly, she removed the earring and put it down carefully next to the other one, before turning to Percy and putting her finger on her lips.

 

“Kraw?”  Percy watched as she pointed to those shiny little balls with pins in them she’d just put on the table, then pointed to the other woman.

 

“Kraw!”  Nodding briskly to show that he understood what Greyhound One had just told him, Percy hopped up onto the back of the chair and turned his back on Janet, mostly to give her some privacy as he had no idea where those little shiny balls had to go, and also because he really needed to deal with that irritating little itch under his right wing…

 

* * *

 

“Are they swapping earrings?” asked Andy, watching with interest and confusion as, as far as he could tell, Janet was putting on the earrings this Kate woman had just taken off.

 

“I hope not…”  Surprised at how grumpy Bianca sounded, especially as he couldn’t remember the amiable Detective sounding that grumpy before, he looked at her in confusion. “...I gave them to her.”

 

“Ah.”  Mystery partially solved, Andy turned back to the monitor.  “Cheer up mate, looks like it’s just …”  It was at that point he realised he should have just shut up because honestly? He had no bloody clue what was happening.

 

* * *

 

“Now what?”  Janet made a conscious effort not to fiddle with the earrings now she was wearing them, but it was hard to believe that they were going to make much of a difference.

 

“Percy?”

 

“Ma’am?”  

 

Janet blinked, swallowed, caught her lip between her teeth and was certain that Kate was probably laughing at her.  She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but she certainly wasn’t expecting him to have a lilting Scottish accent!

 

“Percy, this is Janet King QC, UNIT Special Counsel and a Sydney resident.”  Kate looked at the still rather shocked looking Janet and smiled.  “I take it they’re working then?”

 

Still a bit too stunned to speak, Janet nodded her head slowly.

 

“Good, Os will be pleased.  Oh, I’m not sure how easy Percy will find your accent…”  Kate thought that on balance, he’d probably be able to follow Janet without too much difficulty as the Australian accent wasn’t unheard of around the Tower thanks to their international visitors and scientists.  Also, Janet was unlikely to use too much slang, which was when the Ravens usually got most confused.  Still, it was as much a warning to Percy to listen with extra care as it was a preemptive apology to Janet in case something was about to get lost in translation.

 

“Your sound is good.”  Percy hopped from his perch on the chair back to the table so he was a bit nearer to this Janet King QC in case she had the same vision difficulty Osgood had when she wasn’t wearing her round things.  “What is a Cuesey please?”

 

“Thank you…”  Not sure what she’d been expecting to ‘hear’, she found herself surprised at how complete his sentences were given that, without the translation, all she’d heard was a fairly short series of squawking sounds.  “Cuesey?”  Janet thought for a moment, not quite following his train of thought, which in and of itself was a distracting thought to have as it only counted as further evidence she really was having a conversation with a Raven.  “Oh, it’s an abbreviation, ‘Q’ stands for Queen’s and ‘C’ is for Counsel.  In the UK we’re called Silks sometimes.”  Clearly from the way Kate had introduced her, he was aware what counsel were.

 

“It is a title not a name?”  Percy was more familiar with people having titles in front of their names which he remembered but didn’t have to say to them, like the Boss.  She was a Doctor, but he, like the rest of the Ravens, thought of her as ‘Kate’ or ‘Greyhound One’ and usually called her ‘Boss’ or ‘Ma’am’.  But humans still liked to be confusing, with their titles at the ends of their names...then again, the Doctor hadn’t made it easy for the Ravens to learn the rules as he was using a title as a name and had no name…

 

“Yes.  My name is Janet, Janet King.”  Janet started to move her hand, like she was about to shake hands with him, only to catch herself: how exactly had she intended to shake hands with a Raven?

 

“Greetings to you Janet King, resident of Sydney and Advocate for us.  It is my honour to be able to address myself to you.”  He hopped forwards and leaned down, his beak tapping the table in front of her three times before he righted himself again and hopped back a bit in case she was like Kate and needed to wear those round things on her face to see him if he was too close.  He found humans looked very funny when they weren’t wearing the round things they were supposed to.  “I am, to my own people, Commissaire Roundtalphic of the House of Square…”  He opened his wings to their full extent and curled the tips inwards to his chest.

 

“That’s the Brevent equivalent of a salute Janet,” muttered Kate, unable to hear what Percy was saying but recognising from his body language how far they’d got in the introductions.

 

“Brevent?”

 

“That is the name my people have for my species.”  Percy tucked his wings back against his body and gave himself a little shake to get comfortable again.  “But we externally resemble the Earth species corvus corax so are known as Ravens.”

 

“I see…” Janet wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to call him Commissaire Round-something of the House of Square which clearly wasn’t what it sounded like as that made no sense or Percy, which was easier to say but equally made no sense, except that it was clearly not a synonym for black.

 

“You may call me Percy.  It is the name I picked for this generation.”

 

“This generation?”  Janet shot a look to Kate who promptly mouthed ‘explain later’.  “Of course, thank you Percy.”  Janet looked back at the Raven and smiled warmly at him.  “It is lovely to meet you...and welcome to Sydney…”


	10. Chapter 10

“Anything?”  The door to the Tower’s Ops Room had barely finished closing behind General Winifred Bambera and she was already stood at the centre of the room, in full command.

 

“About Greyhound One, no General.”  Colonel Maria Walsh passed her tablet computer to her senior officer who’d just arrived from Geneva.  While it wasn’t unheard of for one of UNIT’s more senior figures to be temporarily misplaced somewhere in the Universe, with it being 36 hours since they’d ‘lost’ Greyhound One, this was now officially being worried about by Geneva.  In fact, it was worrying Geneva so much so that General Bambera had actually left Geneva 32 hours into Greyhound One’s unscheduled absence so that she was ‘on scene’ at hour 36, rather than having to try and become involved from Geneva.

 

“Where’s Osgood?”  

 

“In her lab.”  It was to Maria Walsh’s credit that she only flinched under the intensity of Winifred Bambera’s look rather than crumbling.  “Captain Stewart suggested I should ask whether the sensor networks were optimally calibrated or whether there was ‘a crackle on the line’.”  Maria waited as long as she dared, hoping that the General would translate that rather cryptic sounding statement into something that more closely resembled the actual chain of events.  

 

“I’ll go and see her in a bit,” said Win quietly, smiling in genuine thanks at Maria’s tact.  She could only imagine how Osgood was feeling currently, and the lack of information to help formulate a theory would be making it even worse for the scientist.  Equally however, if there was anything in their accumulated data that could help them find Kate, it would be Osgood that found it.  “And Captain Stewart.”  Although Max would probably appear to be taking Kate’s absence more slightly stoically than Osgood, Win knew it would only because of his training that he looked calmer.  Generally soldiers had any hint of fluster drummed out of them long before their transfer to Troop, but that wasn’t the same as him not being worried for Kate.

 

“Thank you General.”  

 

“Have we got anything about anything?”

 

“General?”  Maria risked a glance towards McGillop to see if he had any idea what that question was about.  He didn’t.

 

“The focussed searches for Kate have given us nothing, so what else have we got?  Any solar spots or sun flares?”

 

“Sunspots or solar flares…”  McGillop had corrected her before he’d really noticed that he’d spoken loudly enough for all of Ops to hear.  “Uh, sorry Ma’am.”

 

“Have there been any of them?” asked Win, not overly bothered - she stopped feeling defensive about her science hiccups years ago, rationalising that the scientists would expect her to get the military bits right herself and employ them for the science rather than try to be a one woman perfectionist.  “Or anything else that might help us know what’s going on in the universe that needs Greyhound One more than we do?”

 

“Ah, uh…”  Understanding the question, McGillop set about skimming through all the sensor logs for the last 48 hours, deciding it was safer to look rather than try to explain that causality and effect weren’t guaranteed to be that directly connected.  “Nothing out of the ordinary on monitoring...a slight power fluctuation occasionally but…”  He shrugged as he looked between the Colonel and the General, not sure what he could tell them when there was nothing to tell.

 

“How slight?” asked Maria, reaching to Sam Bishop for him to hand over his tablet since it was clear the General wasn’t handing hers back.

 

“How occasional?” asked Win, instinctively looking at the tablet she was holding before deciding she’d just wait for McGillop’s explanation - it would be both quicker and more accurate.

 

“Less than 5%...”  Which was well within the ‘don’t mention in the usual crises’ tolerance as their measurement margin of error was, by Osgood’s best guess, 7%.  However, if he didn’t mention it, McGillop felt like he was classifying the unexplained absence of Kate Stewart for more than 36 hours as a ‘usual crisis’ which was normalising something he really, really felt should never become even remotely normal.  “And twice….once around the time she disappeared…”  Eyes widening, he tapped the screen, trying to encourage the scrolling to speed up.

 

“And the other?”   As a Colonel, was she too senior to believe in the power of crossing her fingers and sending up a prayer to whoever might be listening?”

 

“Just over five hours ago…”

 

“Where?”  Had the Colonel been able to see inside Win’s trouser pocket, she’d have discovered that even Generals crossed their fingers…

 

“Australia, Sydney...we can’t be any more specific.”

 

“Excuse me, General?”

 

“What now?” asked Win, not appreciating being distracted from her conversation with McGillop - Australia was something of a nightmare in terms of sensor and telemetry data on account of the fluctuating distortion that the hole in the ozone layer caused.  Given that she’d already put her hopes on fluctuations that they’d normally dismiss as being measurement ‘noise’, to be trying to build a theory based on taking a piece of ‘noise’ that was in the noisiest region of the planet was more than a long shot, it was an act of blind faith and gut instinct.  But sometimes, that was all that a General had to work with.

 

“Urgent request to see you at the Main Gate.”

 

“Me?”  No one who knew she was here needed to go via the Main Gate to contact her.  “By name?”

 

“Not exactly….”  The young duty officer tapped away at his keyboard and brought up the security camera feed from the main visitor entrance, which on account of it being almost the end of the day, was trying to close.  There were some moments when it was just easier to show rather than tell, and having Representative Tronkrinkgrin in the main visitor entrance in a very sparkly cocktail dress (which Win knew she was supposed to remember was actually Roqurting Ceremonial Uniform) demanding to be received by the Commanding Officer immediately, as was his right as the Senior Alien Ambassador.

 

“What does Tronkie want?” asked Win, wondering also where Drinkie was - as a general rule, the two were usually inseparable unless it was extremely sensitive business which Drinkie’s accreditation precluded him from participating in.  If Tronkie was here demanding to see her without Drinkie in attendance, this was not good news.

 

“Apparently, and this is a direct quote from the Representative, he would like to ‘talk to whoever was stupid enough to agree to Kate Stewart being the mediator for the Smoosh Peace Deal.’”

 

“The what deal?”  Win looked at the monitor again.  “Never mind, look, can we bring him in?  And find Osgood?” 

 

It was phrased like a series of questions….they were interpreted by all to be orders.


	11. Chapter 11

“I assume you plan to cite the Protocol?” asked Janet, after she’d returned the earrings to Kate and was wearing her own pair again.

 

“Unless you’ve a different suggestion?” queried Kate, once more leaning against the wall, her hands in her disconcertingly empty pockets.

 

“Face federal and state charges for immigration, quarantine, illegal firearms and evidence tampering…”  Janet’s smile suggested she really wasn’t expecting Kate to consider her different suggestion to be a better one.  “Although the last one’s a guess - depends what the crime scene was for and whether you were actually somewhere sensitive or just inconvenient.”

 

“Inconvenient, more so for me than them.”  Kate’s own smirk told Janet what she thought of the facing charges plan.  “Not least because of the clean up afterwards, although Constable Repson will require some…”  Kate wasn’t quite sure how diplomatic she needed to be with Janet about the memory wipes, unable to recall ever having discussed them with Janet from an ethical perspective, purely a legal ‘how do we do it’ one.

 

“Careful management?”  Originally, when she’d first learned about the UNIT memory wipe technology, Janet had been horrified and had been adamant that one of her conclusions would be to have its use prohibited.  However, after a few weeks of life at the Tower and learning more about the nature of UNIT’s work and the issues it faced, she’d changed her opinion.  While she would never be completely comfortable with the idea of there being technology available for the selective eradication of memories, she was equally uncomfortable with the idea of the knowledge of some of what UNIT came across being remembered by default.  She’d therefore come to terms with the idea of the technology being available for careful and controlled use within a framework of rules and protocols that were virtually unbreakable unless you were a Time Lord.  Fortunately, while they were by all accounts almost impossible to regulate, they were at least limited in number and for that, Janet had to be grateful, even if she didn’t quite understand why the answer to how many there were seemed to depend who she asked.

 

“Yes.  Unfortunate, but unavoidable as  _ someone… _ ” she glared at Percy who immediately turned his head to the side and pretended to be asleep, knowing better than to try and argue with that tone of voice.  “...was unable to keep his thoughts to himself.”


	12. Chapter 12

“At least we know where she is...” began General Bambera, looking around Ops after she’d updated those that hadn’t heard first hand what Tronkie had come to tell them, courtesy of the inter-galactic grape vine.  To say that Floppottior, Tronkie’s fellow Ambassador had been surprised to discover Kate Lethbridge-Stewart being proposed as the final arbitrator in the centuries long Smoosh Peace negotiation was, according to Tronkie, an understatement and said Ambassador was now on a sabbatical to recover from the shock.  In fact, as and when Kate did return, she’d find a request to authorise visitor permits for ‘Floppy’ and his friend (Win hadn’t dared ask what the friend was called in case she laughed) as Tronkie had recommended a spot of retail therapy in London as an appropriate restorative.

 

“Was.”  

 

All eyes focussed on Osgood who, because she was polishing her glasses, couldn’t see quite how intensively some of her colleagues were staring at her.

 

“Was?”  Unperturbed by the interruption, Win Bambera waited for Osgood to finish cleaning her glasses and put them back on, knowing that it was one of the scientist’s ways of helping to cope in situations of high stress….and misplacing Kate Stewart somewhere in the Universe certainly qualified as stressful as far as Win was concerned.  “You’re going to start talking about time travel.”  Win shifted her weight slightly and tightened her grip on the convenient chair back she was holding.  “It’s not to do with paradoxes is it?  I still don’t understand paradoxes…”

 

“No paradoxes,” promised Osgood quickly, knowing how much the General really didn’t like having to unravel them.  “But based on what we might have seen and what Tronkie’s told us, there’s no guarantee she’s still at the…”  Osgood wasn’t quite sure if Smoosh was the location of the Peace Deal or the species who needed the deal.  She had at least managed to get Tronkie to confirm that Smoosh was not what happened to the arbitrator if a deal was not secured: she didn’t like the idea of Kate being ‘smooshed’.

 

“Peace Deal negotiations on planet Smoosh?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why?”  

 

“Because the Tardis can travel through time and space.”

 

“The Tardis?  But the Tower’s…”  Win stopped talking when she saw how uncomfortable Maria Walsh was suddenly looking.  “Colonel?  Where, precisely was Greyhound One when she disappeared?”

 

“The South side of Tower Bridge, Western pavement Ma’am.”

 

“What was she doing there?”  Realising even as she asked the question that while the answer would be no doubt extremely interesting, it didn’t actually contribute to their immediate problem.  “Never mind.  So what you’re saying is that although we lost Greyhound One the day before yesterday, and Tronkie’s telling us the Smoosh thing takes a fortnight in Earth terms as far as he can tell, because the Doctor was the one who borrowed her she could already be back on Earth?”

 

“Yes General…”  Osgood looked at McGillop.  “...can I see the power fluctuation data please?”

 

“Uh, sure…”  Tapping on his tablet, McGillop passed it over to Osgood, his nervousness making him continue to talk.  “It’s a very slight fluctuation, within tolerances but given the sensitivity of the…” He rambled to a rapid stop when he saw Osgood hold out the tablet to give back to him, clearly having seen enough.

 

“Osgood?”

 

“Kate was field testing new Raven Comms when the Visitor Centre fire alarms went off, which is why she ended up outside the Tower without her jacket.”  And therefore was potentially lost in time and space with no means of contacting them or identifying herself, but Osgood hadn’t been letting herself think about that.

 

“Okay…”  Win wasn’t sure what this meant, but did understand enough of Osgood’s body language to recognise that, weird as it seemed, that was apparently not wholly disastrous news.

 

“That’s not a power fluctuation in the data McGillop.”

 

“It isn’t?”  McGillop took the tablet back from her, confused but keen to understand - if anyone was going to know when a power fluctuation wasn’t a power fluctuation it would be Osgood, after all, the current version of their sensor network was her design.

 

“No, it looks like a power fluctuation but is actually two readings, overlapping.”  She nodded to him to throw the tablet screen onto one of the Ops Room monitors so she could explain to everyone.  “See?  It’s actually the net effect of two readings….”

 

“That’s the Tardis!” exclaimed McGillop, recognising the first signal pattern that Osgood had isolated, forgetting for a moment that he perhaps wasn’t supposed to shout with such excitement and relief when in Ops with the General.

 

“So it is…” agreed Win, having no idea how or why the Tardis looked like it did on this particular sensor reading, but had at least now seen it often enough in reports and the like over the last few years to have learned to recognise the particular combination of spots and spikes as being the Tardis.  “What’s the other pattern?”

 

“I’m not certain, but it looks like what happens to the local sensors when a Raven escapes….”  Osgood grinned “...and Carfax can’t find Percy either.”

 

“Why didn’t we know this sooner?” Win looked from Osgood to Maria Walsh and then around the room generally, not sure whether she was cross or relieved that Carfax the elderly but usually excellent Ravenmaster wasn’t in Ops.  “Isn’t the requirement that he…”  Win frowned, struggling to remember the detail, only to be saved by Osgood who was still looking happy.

 

“Notify once an alien Raven is off the sensors for more than three hours?  Yes, but he had no one to notify.”  

 

It was such a baffling statement, delivered so calmly by Osgood that neither Win nor Maria knew what to say in response.  How exactly had Carfax had no one to tell?  The Tower had been full of people since Greyhound One’s disappearance….

 

“The requirement is that the Ravenmaster must notify the Chancellor in the event of a missing Raven…”  Osgood adjusted her glasses while she waited for Win to mentally translate ‘Chancellor’ to mean ‘Greyhound One’ -  every job in UNIT had multiple names to ensure it was identifiable in any time period.  So, when Elizabeth I had requested the Doctor’s assistance, she had entrusted her credentials to the Chancellor in her time, which was Greyhound One by the time they arrived in 2013.  Had it been even earlier, say in the time of Æthelred or Cnut, then the credentials would have been held by the Sovereign himself as that was where all things alien or occult had ultimately ended up, which was why Fran, Kate’s PA, was also known as the Sovereign’s Clerk… Osgood abruptly stopped her mental discourse when she realised that Win was looking like she wanted to demote someone.  “...and in Carfax’s defence, he didn’t feel he could tell anyone else because until Tabby has finished the protocol review, if the Ravenmaster discusses the alien Ravens with anyone other than the Chancellor then the Ravenmaster is to be terminally dismissed.”

 

“Terminally dismissed?” asked Maria, having a fairly good idea what she thought that phrase meant but feeling rather green all the same - Carfax might not be her favourite person, but he wasn’t  _ that  _ bad.

 

“Tabby?”  Win was struggling to remember who that was, but guessed from the way Osgood mentioned them that they were someone she should probably make a point of meeting while she was here.

 

“Beheaded.”  Nope, Maria was right, and she was feeling rather green...especially as she now knew why she had a rather sharp double edged sword that was just a bit too long to be ceremonial mounted on the wall of her office.  “And Tabby’s Tabitha Groenwald, the new HR Director.”

 

“Ah.  Okay, Carfax is forgiven for not telling anyone…”  Win mentally ticked herself off for doubting him and forgetting about Kate’s newly appointed HR Director who was Flo’s new favourite person following the rewrite of Protocol 5-22 on a more inclusive basis...  “...wait, how do you know we’re missing Percy?”  If Carfax couldn’t report to anyone except Kate that he’d lost a Raven, how did Osgood know?

 

“I went and asked Thomas once we were able to re-enter the Tower to take a register.”  

 

Osgood looked disturbingly innocent suddenly, which almost made Win laugh again, but she caught herself just in time, only to be nearly undone when she heard Max’s hiccup - he too was familiar with Osgood’s ‘trying to be good’ expression that was usually rarely seen at the Tower.  Trust Osgood to work out that while the Ravenmaster was prohibited from talking about the Ravens with anyone in Kate’s absence, there was nothing stopping her talking to one of the Ravens.  As for why Osgood hadn’t then mentioned it to anyone, well that went without saying - in Kate’s absence, as Greyhound Two, there wasn’t anyone for Osgood to mention it to until Win turned up and there was actually reason to talk about a misplaced Raven.

 

“Did…” Maria took a deep breath, not actually sure she believed what she was about to say but carried on anyway, “...Tronkie say whether Floppy had said anything about Percy?” 

 

“Doesn’t matter,” pointed out Osgood, gesturing up to the screen where, now McGillop had worked out what she was thinking, there was another signal shape next to the other two.  “...as that’s definitely Percy.”

 

“So we’ve found them?” asked Maria, wondering if this was what Osgood was really saying, why there wasn’t a bigger lift in the General’s mood.

 

“Yes.  In Australia, Sydney.”  Osgood started tapping away at a computer, clearly now looking for something else.

 

“I am not ringing Koala Zed….” grumbled Win

 

“Koala Zed?”  That was not a codename Maria recognised.

 

“She means Emu One,” translated Osgood, having found what she was looking for.

 

“He should have been called Koala…” grumbled Win, not having fond memories of the last time she’d met the UNIT Lead for Australia, known as Emu One. 

 

It was more of an honorary position, usually taken by an elderly UNIT grandee who appreciated the warm weather posting to Darwin where they were allowed to enjoy their pension and notionally oversee the quarterly calibrations of the sensor network which one of Osgood’s department went out and completed.  That really was the plumb job, with it being offered up on a rotation basis that saw each scientist get the trip about once every 3 years, with the scientist designated Kangaroo One.  Unsurprisingly, if additional scientists or engineers had to go out to perform more major work on the sensors, they were then known as Kangaroos Two to Eight, but not Six.  For reasons mostly not mentioned on account of the unfortunate incident which had happened during Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart’s tenure as Brigadier, Osgood’s father had been the one and only Kangaroo Six, with the designation never existing subsequently, nor Osgood’s family eating tinned fruit after Christmas 1977.  

 

No one knew what would happen if they ever had to send more than seven scientists and engineers out to fix the sensors, but Win’s personal theory was that they’d probably become Emus.  “...did I tell you he slept through all the meetings?”

 

“Repeatedly…” muttered Osgood, looking pointedly at Win and hoping that she remembered not to explain the other reason why she’d wanted to rename him ‘Koala’ - it was unlikely even Win would escape the wrath of Geneva if she went round telling everyone their Australian Lead was also incontinent…. “But if Kate’s in Sydney, there’s someone else we can call....and I doubt she’s ever slept through a meeting…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Try saying Kangaroo Six three times quickly with an Australian accent.... and yes, you may groan ;-) ]


	13. Chapter 13

“Ahem.”  Looking pointedly at Janet, Bianca stood patiently by the side of the table and waited for her girlfriend to take the hint.

 

“Hi…”  Janet leaned back and smiled at Bianca, clearly not taking the hint to stand up and move to the other side of the table.  

 

“Janet?”

 

“Mmm?”  Turning to look at Kate who was now sat down on the chair that Percy wasn’t using as a perch, Janet’s expression narrowed as she tried to work out what was causing the English woman to look far more amused than was normally reasonable for someone detained under threat of numerous State and Federal Charges.

 

“I think…” Kate sized up the woman who was trying to maintain a suitably professional and sombre countenance but was also, to Kate’s eye, struggling not to smirk.  That in conjunction with how Janet relaxed when she’d smiled at the woman gave Kate the confidence to test her hypothesis.  “...that Detective Grieve is trying to remind you you’re sat on the wrong side of the table for this conversation…”

 

“Kra-awk!”  Percy had to flap his wings a couple of times to steady himself as he’d almost overbalanced, meaning neither Kate nor Andy saw Janet blush as she grabbed her bag and got to her feet.

 

“What’s wrong with the table?” asked Kate calmly, not having realised that he was generally trying to use the backs of the chairs as perches for a more fundamental reason than just being a bit fidgety.

 

“Kra-kra-kra-wk!”  Percy completed his explanation by hopping from the chair back to the table and demonstrating his problem - the interview room table was fairly standard ‘institutional furniture’ with a nondescript black top that might have been plastic or wood.  Either way, unless Percy did a strange contortion that Kate realised was probably the corvid equivalent of deliberate dislocation of a finger or two, his claws bit deeply into the table top, leaving behind scratches and grooves.

 

“There’s no need to exaggerate!”  Kate, while not prepared to believe his claim that he might also be charged with ‘Criminal Damage’, was sympathetic to his plight - it was unseemly to scratch the furniture and avoidance looked painful.  She stood up, turned her chair through ninety degrees so that the chair back was no longer parallel to the table and pointed to it.  “Kindly do not rest your beak on my shoulder.”  She looked down at her shirt.  “I happen to like it almost as much as Os does.”

 

“Krawk!”  Indignant at the implication that he had no idea how to behave in the semi-civilised society that humans favoured, Percy nevertheless was very grateful to be able to not have to try and stand on the painfully smooth (relatively speaking) tabletop any longer.  Ruffling his feathers, he looked with interest at these two new people...were they the welcoming committee?

* * *

 

Percy watched with interest as the two new people went through their introductions - clearly they were both some sort of authority, although why they came in different varieties he wasn’t sure.  Still, they both seemed to be fundamentally nice and polite - they had no idea who the Boss was, but at least they weren’t pointing rudimentary weapons at her or shouting.  Also, they both seemed to know Janet King, which was clearly someone the Boss not only knew but trusted and respected as he’d spoken directly with her.  As a general rule, the Ravens kept to themselves and only chatted to a select few at UNIT, although they listened to everyone - it was fascinating what people talked about amongst themselves when they thought only a stupid bird was nearby.  Speaking of listening to people, the female one that looked at Janet the way Kate looked at Osgood sometimes was talking about him and getting things wrong...

“Kra-wak-wak-kra-kra….”  

He knew that look from the Boss….it was her stop talking now look.  So he did.  Stop talking that was, and mid word too.

“Sorry…”  Fixing Percy with a final glare, knowing she shouldn’t really be cross with him for getting upset as it was rather distressing being described as a biosecurity threat, Kate directed a diplomatic smile at Detective Grieve.  “...at least it shows he’s listening…”  The joke had been intended to buy Kate a few seconds while she tried to work out which way was the least likely to cause the sort of paperwork that saw Osgood threatening to relegate her to the couch.  Instead, based on the sharp kick she received to the ankle from Janet, she realised that her more immediate priority was actually going to be finding the solution that evidently didn’t have Bianca kicking Janet out of bed…  “Sorry, it’s been a long...actually, I don’t know how long it’s been.”  Kate rubbed the back of her neck as she leaned back in her chair, unaware that she nearly knocked Percy off his improvised perch with her elbow.  “That’s the problem with time travel…”

“Time travel?”  Andy looked from Kate to Janet and back to Kate again.  “I thought we were…” He clammed up, not actually sure if he was supposed to bring up the alien thing.

“Just talking about aliens?”  Kate smiled as she took in his impressive goldfish impression.  “Not this time.  It’s like poodles and dogs.”

“Excuse me?”

“The saying...all poodles are dogs but not all dogs are poodles?”  She waited for a moment while everyone else, Percy included, worked out what her point was.

“You’re saying that all time travellers are alien but not all aliens are time travellers?” asked Bianca cautiously, finally deciding there wasn’t anything else she needed to untangle.

“Yes.  Well, some of us are passengers…”  she tilted her head in Percy’s direction.  “Commissaire Roundtalphic of the House of Square…”  Percy inclined his head but, on account of not wishing to ruin Kate’s shirt, kept his wings mostly at his sides.  “...is an alien but I’m not.”  She’d let ‘Percy’ decide if the two police inspectors could call him Percy….

“And you arrived in Australia…”

“Courtesy of a time-travelling alien who dropped us off, yes.”

“Dropped you off?”  Bianca wanted to think that this perfectly laid back and composed blonde opposite her was...a good joke that was now wearing a bit thin, but even if Janet hadn’t been sat next to her and calmly accepting every word as truth, there was just something about Kate Lethbridge-Stewart that made her believe…

“I’d asked that she drop us off on Horse Guards Parade or anywhere near the Admiralty but the Tardis…”  Kate considered why exactly the Tardis might have been struggling.  “...she’s not the easiest to drive and I’m not sure Percy helped.”

“Krawk!”

“That was not a personal remark…”  Kate glared at Percy, appreciating that he was finding the whole situation stressful but that was no reason for name calling, although she really must congratulate the biolinguists on their translation matrix, as the nuances of Brevent slang were incredibly subtle,.  “...but a valid observation.  I cannot believe that you being inside the Tardis helped her navigation systems operate smoothly...and I’m hardly going to have a negative opinion about women drivers now am I?” 

The Tardis on the other hand…. Kate had got the slight sense that ‘the old girl’ was struggling to adapt to a more feminine touch on the throttle or whatever it was that the Tardis had.

“Kraw-kra…”  Embarrassed that he’d been so rude, Percy hopped off the back of the chair and went for a wing stretch in the corner of the room, coincidentally meaning Kate could sit a little more comfortably on her chair.  Bianca had no idea why she thought the Raven was looking sheepish, but evidently the retort had carried the slight sting she thought it had, and was clearly understood.

“You want us to believe that a space ship was supposed to drop you off at Admiralty in London…”  Andy thought he’d remembered seeing an Arch when he’d visited as a teenager, but didn’t want to commit himself in case he was wrong.  “...and instead you ended up in Kirribilli and it’s the bird’s fault?”

“Percy is rather more than your average bird Inspector….” warned Kate gently, preempting Percy’s ruffled feathers.  “...but basically yes.  And Australia’s not that far away from London when you’ve got all of space and time to aim for.”

“All of space and time?”  Even as she said it Bianca realised it probably wasn’t something that you could be selective about.

“Yes.”  Kate was intending to finish her explanation at that point but a little voice inside her that sounded a lot like Osgood reminded her how inaccurate she’d been.  “Unless it’s a fixed point in time, which this isn’t so that’s beside the point…” She rubbed the back of her neck, the thought of Osgood worrying about her distracting her for a moment.  “...or an area of space that’s been Tardis proofed.”

“Kra-kra-krawk-kra….”  Percy completed his declaration with a rapid and quite dramatic display of wing stretching, feather ruffling and beak bobbing.

“Which is why Percy being in the Tardis would have disrupted the navigation system…”  Kate took a deep breath that might have been a weary sigh - this really was the point at which there was no turning back as far as any of the three Australians in the room were concerned.  What she was about to tell them was only known by a very select few at UNIT and, once she’d told them, there would be some big decisions to be taken, for all of them.  “...The Tower of London is the only place on this planet that is authorised to be Tardis-proofed, with that protection being delivered by Percy and his fellow Commissaires.”  

For the first time since she’d been shown into this room, Kate noticed there was a bottle of water on the table, presumably for her to drink if she wished.  “May I?”  She gestured to it and at Bianca’s nod, reached for it, pouring some into the paper cup which she put on the floor next to her for Percy while she took a long mouthful straight from the bottle.

“The Tower of London...as in…”  Andy waved his hand through the outline of a classic ‘castle’ shape of battlements.

“Big old thing on the river in Central London?  Yes, that’s my office…”  Kate glanced at Janet, seeing if the lawyer was ready to take over - there wasn’t anything else Kate could really add to her story in terms of how and why she ended up where she ended up and that left her with only one thing left to say.  Unfortunately, in her experience, it invariably never went down well when she said it either, so she was genuinely glad to have landed in the one place she actually had a lawyer she could turn everything over to.  

Letting others handle things wasn’t usually Kate’s way or style, but then again, she wasn’t usually genuinely unable to tell you how long it was since she’d last slept because of time travelling  _ and  _ not being able to stop to sleep in case the planet blew up:  usually, she just lost track of time because nap time would have meant the planet exploded, which invariably meant she rationalised that staying awake was more restful...and she was mentally rambling to herself, which definitely confirmed she was in not only in need of a nap, but running out of adrenalin.  Taking another mouthful of water and ordering herself to concentrate, she returned to the point.

 “...So, since I have now satisfied my duties and obligations to disclose my purpose of visit and method of arrival in the Commonwealth of Australia as required of me under section 3 sub section…”  Kate’s mind went blank as to what exactly was requiring her to talk and, more importantly now, was giving her the opportunity to be quiet, but somehow it was like the universe knew she’d run out of go at this point…. actually, it probably did know, which was perhaps the reason why if the Tardis couldn’t find London she’d missed by half a planet’s worth....  

“...section 3 sub section 2 requires any taskforce operative, on finding themselves detained for the purpose of ascertaining identity or objective, to disclose the purpose of their visit and method of arrival, which my clients have done,” concluded Janet, reaching into her briefcase and pulling out her pen and pad, just in case she needed to make any notes but mostly so she could glance discretely at Kate to see how she was doing. Janet had swiftly stepped in and started to cite the Protocol when Kate abruptly stopped, but she’d been surprised, having expected Kate to continue to hold everyone’s attention as only she could.  Seeing the faint hint of a nod and smile from the English woman, Janet returned her attention to her two favourite police inspectors, well, her favourite police inspector and her favourite person who happened to also be a police inspector, just in time to see Andy’s reaction.

Janet had never seen Andy’s jaw literally drop, and hadn’t believed he could go that pale if she hadn’t witnessed it first hand...in fact, it took all of Janet’s considerable courtroom experience to maintain a neutral expression when she saw him registering the significance of her formally identifying herself as the lawyer for Kate and Percy, although she wasn’t actually sure if his shock was because she was calmly claiming Percy as her client or if it was because he was, for the first time, technically not on the same side as her. 

“...As such, and in accordance with Section 4 sub-section 1 of the Universal Treaty On Earth Protocol…” Now she’d started, Janet was just going to keep going - while Kate was probably one of the few people in UNIT who did understand the Treaty Earth Protocol well enough to act as her own Counsel, since Janet was here she’d carry on and do her job, well, her UNIT job at least.  “...my clients claim the right of full deniability and covert classification and request that it be honoured by the Commonwealth.”  Plus, and she was honest enough to admit it to herself and Bianca later, she was actually enjoying herself.

“Which in English means?”  Any other lawyer spouting off at him and Andy would be getting in their face, but this was Janet...and aliens, but mostly Janet, so he kept calm and just hoped Bianca had an idea as to how they got themselves out of this one.

“They officially don’t exist and a load of phones are about to start ringing?” guessed Bianca, forming this conclusion entirely from reading Janet’s inscrutable expression and, unlike Andy, spotting the tiny sparkle of approval that Bianca’s speculation was on exactly the right lines.

“Alrighty….”  Closing the file he had brought in with him, deciding that it probably didn’t actually matter what the specific charges were as it was all going to disappear in a click of someone’s fingers, Andy adjusted his tie knot.  “...what’s the magic word and who do we say it to?”

Janet looked to Kate and raised her eyebrow, silently asking Kate if she wanted to ‘have the honour’ of setting the next phase in motion as she knew in theory what happened next, but had never actually witnessed it.

“Call this number…” Kate scrawled a phone number on Janet’s pad for them, “...and tell them you’ve got Greyhound One.”

“That’s it?”  Not that Andy was going to complain - a single phone call was way easier than the mountain of paperwork they’d be otherwise stuck with, but somehow he’d been expecting more.

“Krawk krawk krawk!”  

Bianca had mastered enough of Percy’s overall posture and volume control to work out when he was passing comment on something, even if she had absolutely no idea what he might be saying, although judging by Kate’s schooled features and Janet’s smirk, it was something she’d probably need a beer or two to really find amusing.

“Is that…”  Not quite sure what language ‘Percy’ actually spoke, Bianca hoped she wasn’t about to create a diplomatic incident.  “...something that needs translating?” she asked, torn between the instinctive discomfort that not knowing what was being said was generating and her finely honed instinct to recognise when ignorance was bliss.

“No.”  Kate smiled at Bianca and glared at Percy who recognised the look as being the Boss’ ‘do you want to meet the Ravens of Death’ look….which was extremely disconcerting when you  _ were  _ one of the Ravens of Death, but he didn’t like that bit of the job so much.

“Okay then.”  

Bianca and Andy shared a look with each other, then with Janet before both standing up. 

“Guess we go make that phone call…”   

It felt very strange, leaving the interview room without Janet, only for Bianca to give herself a mental shake - if that was the only thing about that conversation she found strange, she was clearly not getting enough sleep or drinking too little water.

“Was that?”  Andy jerked his head back at the closed door once they were both standing in the hallway, each wondering whether their police-issued cell phones permitted international dialing or whether they should find a deskphone somewhere.

“Weird?”  Bianca looked at Andy, unwilling to commit herself as to which bit, specifically, was weird.

“Yeah….I mean…”  He loosened his tie knot slightly and used the slack to ease the knot back into the centre of his collar again.  “...she’s scary on the other side of the table…”

“Yeah…”  Bianca nodded in the direction of the little cluster of Fed Police she could see, lurking waiting to find out what they were going to do with the bird.  “...come on, the sooner we make the call…”  She was about to say ‘the sooner we’re back in Sydney’ but stopped herself. 

After all, with all of space and time to now consider, who knew what was about to happen next?


	14. Chapter 14

Left alone in the interview room with Kate and Percy, Janet leaned back in her chair and looked at Kate, one eyebrow raised in question.

 

“What?”  Reflex saw Kate go to check her cuffs and shirt buttons, only to remember her sleeves were rolled up and her cufflinks were on her desk in London.

 

“Are you going to make me guess?”  Janet was not a fan of guessing games, as Bonnie the overly bouncy analyst had quickly learned, although, there were some people with whom she was more inclined to at least attempt to guess such as her children or Bianca.  Kate however, wasn’t one of them, mostly because never in a month of Anzac Days would Janet get even close to the right answer rather than she objected to having her time wasted with a guessing ‘game’.

 

“About?”  Percy’s quiet ‘kra-w’ which, sounded like he was clearing his throat, was clearly a hint Kate elected to take.  “Oh, that…”   Kate took another drink of water, not because she was playing for time but because she really was thirsty - Smoosh hospitality had been less than generous although the Tardis had done her best to augment the rations somehow.  “...it’s literal translation is ‘underwhelmed is a foolish feeling when you’ve never flown this way before’...”

 

“Kra-krawk…”  Percy corrected Kate slightly when he heard her attempt at the translation - what she said it meant was an accurate translation of the meaning but lacked something...

 

“The  _ polite  _ literal translation is that,” amended Kate, sending a fairly fierce look in the direction of her overly chatty Raven, leaving Janet to work out what the less polite literal translation might be, and decide that she really was happy to stay on Kate’s good side.

 

“I see.”  Janet looked at Percy who ruffled his feathers with an unexpectedly nonchalant air.  “Do you know what is going to happen next?” asked Janet finally, deciding that asking Kate ‘what’ was about to happen wasn’t going to yield much of an answer as it was too easy for Kate to sidestep what Janet actually wanted to know with her answer.

 

“I’m not sure…”  She rubbed the back of her neck, not sure if she was going to have been away long enough, from UNIT’s perspective at least, to justify quite how tired and careworn she felt.  She’d desperately like a couple of days’ leave but that wasn’t always easy to come by at UNIT. “...it all rather depends on whether I’ve been missed yet…” Or, not that she’d suggest this possibility unless she absolutely had to, whether her return had resulted in multiple Kate Lethbridge-Stewarts.  If that was the case, then her headache would really begin in earnest.  After all, it had been quite a challenge to get everything in order when Greyhound Two had occasionally came with a duplicate, she wasn’t sure anyone would cope with duplicate Greyhound Ones….least of all her.

 

Janet was about to ask how it could be possible for Kate to leave the planet and not be missed before she realised what Kate was carefully not saying.

 

“I don’t think I like time travel...” concluded Janet finally, wondering if she’d just been singularly insulting to the UNIT leader.

 

“That makes two of us…” grumbled Kate right before losing control on her yawn.

 

“Krawk!”

 

“Sorry, three of us…”

* * *

 

“No answer…”  Win looked at Osgood as the sound of the phone ringing but not being picked up echoed around the Ops Room.  “...and I don’t think we can leave a message…”  The room went quiet as, hint taken, the duty officer disconnected the phone call.  “Do we have a plan B?” Win was self-aware enough to recognise that her personal plan B had, for the last decade or so, been to call Kate - it had actually been the quality that had commended her to the role of UNIT Head at the Tower when, right after the Torchwood debacle, they’d needed someone new, fast.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t much of a plan right now, but then this was the first time in that decade or so that they had actually lost Kate.

 

“Maybe…”  Osgood carried on analysing the data she’d started pulling up, taking advantage of the UNIT information monitoring systems and trying to piece together what might be the probable scenario.  “...it looks like her phone is turned on and in Parramatta.”

 

“Parra-where?”  Win was not blessed with a particularly detailed grasp of Australian geography and, unlike Osgood, wasn’t currently looking at a map.

 

“Matta...it seems to be a bit like Watford…”  Osgood readjusted her glasses, thinking she’d improved the situation for everyone else while she continued to work through her rapid analysis.

 

“It’s a Gap?”

 

“Hmm?”  Looking up, initially completely confused by Win’s logic, Osgood came as close to a frustrated huff as she would ever get in a professional context.  “No, not Watford Gap…”  For a moment, she distracted herself with what she knew about Watford Gap which was disconcertingly little, prompting her to make a mental note to research it at a suitable moment.  “Watford the town, in Hertfordshire but most people think of it as sort of London.  Parramatta appears to be the same….sort of.”

 

“A suburb that’s actually a place?  Right.”  Understanding Osgood’s logic which, admittedly, was very Osgood in its logicalness, Win was able to now consider what might be in Parramatta that was relevant...prompting her to need to ask her next question.  “What’s in Parramatta that’s interesting?”  She saw Osgood’s expression as she looked up again and quickly amended her question.  “In the context of our Greyhound One issue.”

 

It was tempting to correct Win’s statement and point out that their issue was actually a lack of Greyhound One, but Osgood told herself off for being pettily pedantic as a result of being grumpy from worrying about Kate, so bit her lip and tried to form a suitably informative conclusion.

 

“Potentially lots of things but if I had to guess….”  She was so focussed on her computer screen that she failed to notice Win’s blink of shock that she shared with Maria Walsh or McGillop’s audible gulp - Osgood was clearly very worried if she was  _ guessing:  _ she was Osgood, she didn’t guess.  “...I suspect, given her profession, she’s at the State Crime Command...which would also appear to be where an unidentified blonde female with an English accent is assisting with enquiries…”  Win was never entirely sure whether she should be reassured or alarmed by the ease with which UNIT analysts were able to access and accumulate information from other agencies before deciding that it was safer to just not think about it.  One thing was for sure, she doubted that there was any analyst anywhere in UNIT who would be pulling together this picture faster than Osgood - she may be a scientist, but that didn’t restrict her brilliant when it came to solving puzzles.  “...which is probably Kate…” although as descriptions went, it was hardly accurate or flattering….although getting Kate’s age wrong by a decade or so would amuse her, until she worked out how young she’d have had to be to have Gordy!

 

“Probable enough that we call them?” asked Win, liking the idea of what was sounding sufficiently close enough to a ‘plan B’ to call it the new plan.

 

“Possibly…”  For all her hope that this would be the clue they needed to find Kate, Osgood’s natural caution and preference for absolute certainty was starting to resurface.

 

“Excuse me General?”  The Duty Officer looked like he was about to encounter his worst nightmare which, given he’d just interrupted Greyhound Two and the General was perhaps fairly accurate.

 

“What?”  Make that a grumpy General.

 

“There’s a caller on Greyhound One’s mobile phone…”  He was so nervous his ears were glowing bright red, prompting Maria Walsh to move over and provide some reassuring support as he pulled up the priority signal Fran Waincroft had just flashed through to them when she answered the call.  “...from someone identifying themselves as Detective Inspector Grieve of the Australian Federal Police with a message for whoever answered the call.”

 

“What’s the message?” prompted Colonel Walsh, knowing he was following his training but recognising that the General, like the Colonel and no doubt McGillop, Osgood and most of the rest of Ops if not the whole Tower, just wanted to know what the message was.

 

“Apparently, they’ve got Greyhound One.” 

 

“Got?”  Win looked at Maria Walsh who, with a nod of her head, sent Sam Bishop to retrieve the phone and bring it back to Ops.  “As in arrested?  Can we get the call in here please?”

 

“Yes Ma’am…” the Duty Officer took a deep breath and set about making the necessary connections, trying not to think about Osgood sat a couple of feet away and how quickly she could probably do this - she might not be a communications technician like he was, but she was somehow so intuitively brilliant when she came to any UNIT technology that she’d managed to amass a rather intimidatory reputation that preceded her.  “...uh, we can’t listen in and I can’t transfer the call…”

 

“Why not?”  General Bambera being in Ops was making a large number of the Ops officers extremely nervous - General Bambera with gritted teeth unhappy at not getting what she expected was probably going to cause some of them to expire if this continued for too long.

 

“The latest communications directive…”  Maria looked from a clearly irritated General to Osgood, wondering if the scientist could help her out, “...from Geneva, it prohibits us from joining calls that are using personal devices assigned to senior officials…”

 

“What?  Whose idiotic suggestion was that?”  Angry at someone who she knew was almost certainly in Geneva somewhere, possibly with their head in a bucket of sand, Win looked around the room expectantly.

 

“Oversight Committee…” muttered Osgood quietly, just managing to not add her own comments about their lack of usefulness.  “...last month, after the…”  She swallowed and looked meaningfully at Win, preferring not to say that it was the protocol brought in after Claude Tredoment had discovered that his phone calls with his mistress weren’t quite as private as he’d hoped.  

 

Somehow, the Committee had agreed with him that this was a gross violation of their privacy with no official justification and had ordered new encryption protocols put in place...in the process stopping the Ops Communications teams from being able to jump into calls on Greyhound devices, much to Kate and Osgood’s frustration.  Unlike their Geneva counterparts, they understood that there was a difference between ‘have the ability to’ and ‘are doing’.  Unfortunately, that was a distinction that the Oversight Committee had failed to appreciate and now, out of fear that ‘having the ability to’ and ‘are doing’ were one and the same thing, Ops couldn’t pick up the call happening on Kate’s phone.

 

“Oh.”  For a moment Win was rendered speechless as she mentally drafted a long list of things she’d do to Mr Tredoment on her return to Geneva that possibly also involved asking Kate for the loan of a Raven or two.

 

“Lt Bishop is bringing Mrs Waincroft and the phone here General…”  Maria was now standing by the Duty Officer, trying to give him a cross between a confidence boost and some moral support while also keeping an incredibly close eye on his every movement so they did not make a mess of anything.  “But we’ve got a trace on the number Inspector Grieve is calling from and it’s definitely within the State Crime Command building in Parramatta, New South Wales.”

 

“Excellent.”  

 

As she spoke, Win put the tablet aside and leant against the desk, her hands disappearing into her uniform trouser pockets.  It wasn’t the same as Greyhound One saying ‘tip top’ - for one thing, Kate Stewart’s hands would have probably been in her pockets for the last few minutes and she generally leaned against the workstation Osgood was currently using, as that way she could see all the Ops officers and the main screens without her glasses.  So really, concluded Maria Walsh, it was nothing like when Kate Stewart was in charge of a crisis...and yet, somehow, she was finding it a little bit easier to breathe now it looked like they probably had found Greyhound One after all…

 

“Colonel?”

 

“Yes General?”

 

“Let’s get our ADF friends ready for the ID and extract…”

 

“Ma’am?”  It wasn’t that she disagreed with the General, but she did want to make sure that she’d properly understood what exactly she was suggesting: there were some misunderstandings that could take decades of negotiation to untangle and she didn’t think Greyhound One would appreciate one being accidentally added to her to do list…

 

“Send in the gunboats Maria…”  Win stood up straight and took her hands out of her pockets, looking every inch the General she was, even without the medals, braid and rank insignia that covered her uniform jacket.

 

“Yes Ma’am…”  As Maria leaned forwards and started to supervise her junior officer’s rather nervous movements, McGillop’s squeak had attracted Osgood’s attention.

 

“What’s the matter McGillop?” she asked, giving her glasses a polish while she waited for his answer, using the moment to also work out what her ‘to do’ list might start to resemble assuming that Win was satisfied that this Inspector Grieve was legitimate, although Osgood was convinced.  Only Kate would fail to remember the proper telephone number for calling in under such circumstances while at the same time realising that no one would have moved her mobile from where she’d left it on her desk.  It was too complex in its execution to be a hoax, and too random to be Kate calling under duress.

 

“G...g...gunboats?”

 

“Metaphorical gunboats,” explained Osgood, putting her glasses on when her list got to item 12 - experience had taught her that she now needed an actual list on a piece of paper or tablet for items 13 onwards.  “We’re not actually invading…” At least, not as option one, and not with a ‘friend’ like Australia.    “...and technically, we don’t have any gunboats either…”  UNIT’s military force was predominantly land based in terms of personnel and equipment, with a few planes and helicopters for monitoring and transportation purposes.  They did have some rather sophisticated long range airborne systems, but not, as far as Osgood was aware, much in the way of nautical assets.  “...although I suppose, in theory, the research submarines and surface vessels would become gunboats if they were refitted…”  Seeing that her train of thought wasn’t doing much to help calm McGillop down, she smiled and returned to a more specific and literal answer.  “Gunboat Diplomacy is the name given to a form of diplomacy where the idea of a potential military action in the future is alluded to as part of the incentive to resolve now.”  She saw him starting to relax.  “We’re not invading anyone...”  Osgood looked from McGillop to Win Bambera who was waiting with only barely contained patience for Fran to appear with the phone, prompting Osgood to correct herself.  “...at least, not today and not in Australia.”  

 

She wasn’t certain that Geneva would be so fortunate.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who's commented here or on tumblr - consensus seems to be it's not a disaster, worth continuing if only to find out what on earth I'm thinking and most people are rather fond of Percy ;-)
> 
> Hope the latest updates continue to be enjoyed, do let me know your thoughts (and to know if you're a Janet King fan or a brave Dr Who experimenter! It's wonderful to 'meet' you :-)


End file.
